Tebello Nyokong facts for kids

Tebello Nyokong (born 20 October 1951) is a famous South African chemist. She is a top professor at Rhodes University. She has received many important awards for her work. These include the Order of Mapungubwe from South Africa and the L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. This award recognized her as a leading woman in science from Africa and the Arab States in 2009.

Professor Nyokong is currently working on a new way to treat cancer called photodynamic therapy. This method is different from chemotherapy and aims to be safer. In 2007, she was one of the top three scientists publishing research in South Africa. She also received the National Research Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013.

Early Life and Education

Tebello Nyokong was born on 20 October 1951, in Maseru, Lesotho. She spent most of her childhood in South Africa.

She grew up in a challenging environment. As a child, she lived with her grandparents in the mountains of Lesotho. She helped care for sheep and went to school. She often spent one day at school and the next day looking after the sheep. Professor Nyokong has shared that even with these difficulties, her hard work helped her do well in maths and science. This showed that being poor does not mean you cannot be smart. She learned to trust her own ideas and not be influenced by others. Her love for science helped her have a great career and a family, and she has helped society a lot.

Two years before finishing high school, she changed her studies from art to science. This is when she became very interested in chemistry. She earned her Cambridge Overseas School Certificate in 1972. In 1977, she got her first university degree in chemistry and biology from the National University of Lesotho. She then earned a Master's degree in Chemistry in 1981 from McMaster University in Canada. In 1987, she completed her PhD in chemistry from the University of Western Ontario. After her PhD, she received a special scholarship called a Fulbright fellowship. This allowed her to continue her research at the University of Notre Dame in the United States.

Career in Science

After her research in the United States, Professor Nyokong returned to Lesotho for a short time. In 1992, she started working as a lecturer at Rhodes University in South Africa. The National Research Foundation gave her a high rating. This helped her get a research laboratory at the university. Soon, she moved from being a lecturer to a professor, and then a distinguished professor.

She is well-known for her research in nanotechnology. This is the study of very tiny things. She is also famous for her work on photodynamic therapy. Her new research in this area is helping to find safer ways to detect and treat cancer. This method aims to avoid the harsh side effects often seen with chemotherapy.

Professor Nyokong's research team is working on special "nanodrugs." These are tiny particles that can do many things. They combine metallic, magnetic, or semiconductor nanoparticles with light-sensitive chemicals. These chemicals are called photosensitizers. The nanodrugs are designed to gather at cancer sites in the body. They can be changed to act as photosensitizers or to carry other treatments. This creates a complete tool for therapy. This tool can absorb light and turn it into something that can destroy tumor cells. This needs only low light and small amounts of the drug. Professor Nyokong believes a big challenge is to create better materials that can act as photocatalysts. These could help treat diseases and fight germs without causing pollution.

In 2014, she was a professor at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. She was part of a special photo project called 21 icons by Adrian Steirn. The picture showed her as a shepherd, like in her childhood, but wearing her white chemist's coat. Copies of this picture were sold to raise money for charity.

In 2021, Professor Nyokong wrote an article in Nature Materials. In it, she and her colleagues talked about the challenges for scientists in Africa. They explained that while governments pay for salaries and basic needs, international partners are needed to fund research. They also said that working together helps create a stronger science community. More effort is needed to turn academic research into useful products.

See also

• Photodynamic therapy
• Nanotechnology